GEC Sunfish + Leather strop w/ compound = Lightsaber

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dirtpig67

Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
235
I usually sharpen my knives on a Spyderco Sharpmaker and have got pretty good results - at least what I thought were pretty good results. I had my GEC Sunfish out with a couple of other knives giving them a touchup and tried finishing them by stroping on a recently aquired leather hone mounted on a piece of wood. One side with green honing compound and the other with black.

All I can say is WOW. I wished I had discovered this a while ago as this takes the edge sharpness to a whole new level, especially on the GEC 1095 steel. My hairy arm now has a mysterious Sunfish sized swath of missing hair:D

If you normally just use stones to sharpen, take a look at a simple strope setup if you really want to get that edge on the steel.
 
Where did you get the strop from? I usually use the backside of my leather belt dry with great results but felt I could do even better with a quality strop and compounds to go with it.
 
I got the compound locally and the strop from knivesshipfree. I tried to make one with an old belt and wood myself but the ones he is selling work much better than what I was able to make.

I tried it out without the compound on it at first but did not get much of a result with just the plain leather. Just adding a little of the compound on the leather made a huge difference.
 
Does this result in convexing? I'd like to try stropping but know little about componds .Thanks for the thread.
 
No I am not putting a full convex edge on it. Just finishing it with a strop after normal sharpening on the Sharpmaker. The compounds are nothing more than a mild abrasive.

You would have to re-profile the entire edge with sandpaper to convex it.
 
I enjoy cutting out small oak planks making a handle on it similar to a paint brush handle, and glue some compressed leather (recommended for stroping leather) to it. I use Hand American leather. I really like the diamond spray the best for a fast cut. It works great. Gotta strop for that real sharpness.
 
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